adding_new_classes.diviner

@title Adding New Classes
@group developer

Guide to adding new classes to extend Phabricator.

Overview
========

Phabricator is highly modular, and many parts of it can be extended by adding
new classes. This document explains how to write new classes to change or
expand the behavior of Phabricator.

IMPORTANT: The upstream does not offer support with extension development.

Fundamentals
============

Phabricator primarily discovers functionality by looking at concrete subclasses
of some base class. For example, Phabricator determines which applications are
available by looking at all of the subclasses of
@{class@phabricator:PhabricatorApplication}. It
discovers available workflows in `arc` by looking at all of the subclasses of
@{class@arcanist:ArcanistWorkflow}. It discovers available locales
by looking at all of the subclasses of @{class@libphutil:PhutilLocale}.

This pattern holds in many cases, so you can often add functionality by adding
new classes with no other work. Phabricator will automatically discover and
integrate the new capabilities or features at runtime.

There are two main ways to add classes:

  - **Extensions Directory**: This is a simple way to add new code. It is
    less powerful, but takes a lot less work. This is good for quick changes,
    testing and development, or getting started on a larger project.
  - **Creating Libraries**: This is a more advanced and powerful way to
    organize extension code. This is better for larger or longer-lived
    projects, or any code which you plan to distribute.

The next sections walk through these approaches in greater detail.


Extensions Directory
====================

The easiest way to extend Phabricator by adding new classes is to drop them
into the extensions directory, at `phabricator/src/extensions/`.

This is intended as a quick way to add small pieces of functionality, test new
features, or get started on a larger project. Extending Phabricator like this
imposes a small performance penalty compared to using a library.

This directory exists in all libphutil libraries, so you can find similar
directories in `arcanist/src/extensions/` and `libphutil/src/extensions/`.

For example, to add a new application, create a file like this one and add it
to `phabricator/src/extensions/`.

```name=phabricator/src/extensions/ExampleApplication.php, lang=php
<?php

final class ExampleApplication extends PhabricatorApplication {

  public function getName() {
    return pht('Example');
  }

}
```

If you load {nav Applications} in the web UI, you should now see your new
application in the list. It won't do anything yet since you haven't defined
any interesting behavior, but this is the basic building block of Phabricator
extensions.


Creating Libraries
==================

A more powerful (but more complicated) way to extend Phabricator is to create
a libphutil library. Libraries can organize a larger amount of code, are easier
to work with and distribute, and have slightly better performance than loose
source files in the extensions directory.

In general, you'll perform these one-time setup steps to create a library:

  - Create a new directory.
  - Use `arc liberate` to initialize and name the library.
  - Configure Phabricator or Arcanist to load the library.

Then, to add new code, you do this:

  - Write or update classes.
  - Update the library metadata by running `arc liberate` again.

Initializing a Library
======================

To create a new libphutil library, create a directory for it and run
`arc liberate` on the directory. This documentation will use a conventional
directory layout, which is recommended, but you are free to deviate from this.

```
$ mkdir libcustom/
$ cd libcustom/
libcustom/ $ arc liberate src/
```

Now you'll get a prompt like this:

```lang=txt
No library currently exists at that path...
The directory '/some/path/libcustom/src' does not exist.

  Do you want to create it? [y/N] y
Creating new libphutil library in '/some/path/libcustom/src'.
Choose a name for the new library.

  What do you want to name this library?
```

Choose a library name (in this case, "libcustom" would be appropriate) and it
you should get some details about the library initialization:

```lang=txt
Writing '__phutil_library_init__.php' to
  '/some/path/libcustom/src/__phutil_library_init__.php'...
Using library root at 'src'...
Mapping library...
Verifying library...
Finalizing library map...
  OKAY   Library updated.
```

This will write three files:

  - `src/.phutil_module_cache` This is a cache which makes "arc liberate"
    faster when you run it to update the library. You can safely remove it at
    any time. If you check your library into version control, you can add this
    file to ignore rules (like `.gitignore`).
  - `src/__phutil_library_init__.php` This records the name of the library and
    tells libphutil that a library exists here.
  - `src/__phutil_library_map__.php` This is a map of all the symbols
    (functions and classes) in the library, which allows them to be autoloaded
    at runtime and dependencies to be statically managed by `arc liberate`.

Linking with Phabricator
========================

If you aren't using this library with Phabricator (e.g., you are only using it
with Arcanist or are building something else on libphutil) you can skip this
step.

But, if you intend to use this library with Phabricator, you need to define its
dependency on Phabricator by creating a `.arcconfig` file which points at
Phabricator. For example, you might write this file to
`libcustom/.arcconfig`:

```lang=json
{
  "load": [
    "phabricator/src/"
  ]
}
```

For details on creating a `.arcconfig`, see
@{article:Arcanist User Guide: Configuring a New Project}. In general, this
tells `arc liberate` that it should look for symbols in Phabricator when
performing static analysis.

NOTE: If Phabricator isn't located next to your custom library, specify a
path which actually points to the `phabricator/` directory.

You do not need to declare dependencies on `arcanist` or `libphutil`,
since `arc liberate` automatically loads them.

Finally, edit your Phabricator config to tell it to load your library at
runtime, by adding it to `load-libraries`:

```lang=json
...
'load-libraries' => array(
  'libcustom' => 'libcustom/src/',
),
...
```

Now, Phabricator will be able to load classes from your custom library.


Writing Classes
===============

To actually write classes, create a new module and put code in it:

  libcustom/ $ mkdir src/example/
  libcustom/ $ nano src/example/ExampleClass.php # Edit some code.

Now, run `arc liberate` to regenerate the static resource map:

  libcustom/ $ arc liberate src/

This will automatically regenerate the static map of the library.


What You Can Extend And Invoke
==============================

libphutil, Arcanist and Phabricator are strict about extensibility of classes
and visibility of methods and properties. Most classes are marked `final`, and
methods have the minimum required visibility (protected or private). The goal
of this strictness is to make it clear what you can safely extend, access, and
invoke, so your code will keep working as the upstream changes.

IMPORTANT: We'll still break APIs frequently. The upstream does not support
extension development, and none of these APIs are stable.

When developing libraries to work with libphutil, Arcanist and Phabricator, you
should respect method and property visibility.

If you want to add features but can't figure out how to do it without changing
Phabricator code, here are some approaches you may be able to take:

  - {icon check, color=green} **Use Composition**: If possible, use composition
    rather than extension to build your feature.
  - {icon check, color=green} **Find Another Approach**: Check the
    documentation for a better way to accomplish what you're trying to do.
  - {icon check, color=green} **File a Feature Request**: Let us know what your
    use case is so we can make the class tree more flexible or configurable, or
    point you at the right way to do whatever you're trying to do, or explain
    why we don't let you do it. Note that we **do not support** extension
    development so you may have mixed luck with this one.

These approaches are **discouraged**, but also possible:

  - {icon times, color=red} **Fork**: Create an ad-hoc local fork and remove
    `final` in your copy of the code. This will make it more difficult for you
    to upgrade in the future, although it may be the only real way forward
    depending on what you're trying to do.
  - {icon times, color=red} **Use Reflection**: You can use
    [[ http://php.net/manual/en/book.reflection.php | Reflection ]] to remove
    modifiers at runtime. This is fragile and discouraged, but technically
    possible.
  - {icon times, color=red} **Remove Modifiers**: Send us a patch removing
    `final` (or turning `protected` or `private` into `public`). We will almost
    never accept these patches unless there's a very good reason that the
    current behavior is wrong.


Next Steps
==========

Continue by:

  - visiting the [[ https://secure.phabricator.com/w/community_resources/ |
    Community Resources ]] page to find or share extensions and libraries.